Day: January 1, 2013

It’s New Year’s Day and that means some of us will make a few resolutions, either sincere or otherwise. Last year I made some Un-resolutions – things that I resolved not to do in the new year. This year, I’m refraining from hardcore resolutions once again, but I do have a few personal goals to pursue in 2013.

Mind

Do my job better

I’m OK at my job, but if I’m speaking fairly and honestly, it has suffered over the last 5 or 6 years as I got more and more into writing about Saaby things. Actually, just things in general. Both I and my workplace would probably benefit if I were to engage a bit more. Then again, my job can be repetitive and boring as hell, so maybe we’d all be better off if I looked elsewhere.

I’ll give re-engaging a go, first.

Build PJ’s business

My wife is an aspiring artist working as a teacher. She’d like to change that but of course, there are plenty of starving artists out there in the world already and I’ve encouraged her away from adding to that number.

She does wonderful work, though, and more and more people are beginning to enjoy it. I think we have some good ideas for building her business over the next few years. It’s going to be fun to see what we can do with that.

Make some movies

Petrolicious has been inspiring me lately. I’ve got a bunch of GoPros and microphones. It’s time I got more familiar with using them.

Body

Continue at ZAP

I joined a brilliant 24 hour gym during 2012. It’s called ZAP and going there has become a bit of a ritual through the last four months or so of the year.

Anyone who’s known me for a long time knows that I have had a pretty rotten diet since…. well, forever. When I stopped playing basketball (and stated blogging) around 2005, weight become more and more of an issue. I’ve loved every minute of my time writing and plan to continue, but I guess I’m getting more balanced now that the Saab situation has reached what is, for me, a mostly sad resolution.

I started the journey at 120kg and have lost close to 10 of those in the last few months. I haven’t changed my diet deliberately and I haven’t pushed myself in any particular direction. I want this process to be as natural as possible so that it’s sustainable. It’s working, too. I’ve cut down on the bad foods quite naturally. I simply just don’t want them so much anymore.

The next goal is to get to 100kg and then we’ll see where things go from there. 90kg would be ideal given my height.

Smoking

I want to quit during 2013 and again, I’m trying to make this as natural as possible, too, so that it sticks. This is going to be the tough one.

Liari asked about the electronic cigarettes in comments the other day. I still have them, though I haven’t used them much. Hopefully they’ll be a help (sooner rather than) later in the year.

Soul

The year of family and friends

I’m a lousy friend. I’m hopeless at keeping in touch with people and feel rather awkward around people I don’t know. I don’t suffer fools easily and find conversation too difficult if it’s not about something I’m really interested in.

I’d like to get better at all those things because I love my family and friends and want to see more of them.

The year of the Beatles

The Beatles made 12 studio albums and whilst I’ve heard their music over and over through my 42 years, I’ve only ever owned a taped copy of Abbey Road, many years ago. That changed at about 1am this morning when I bought Please Please Me on iTunes.

I’m going to add one album a month going from the beginning of their career to the end and I’m really looking forward to it.

The year of the road trip

We were going to tour the US, then it got hard to secure enough time off to do it properly. We were going to tour just one side of the US, then we started thinking…..

We’ll now most likely keep our money here in Australia and see more of the country we actually live in. The east coast is looking good…..

After 5 years or so of travelling around the world on Saaby trips, I’d also like to spend more time just getting to know the island I live on a bit better. There are some beautiful spots here in Tasmania and it’s all to easy to neglect the place where you live.

Road trips need a car

I will undoubtedly change cars this year. I always do. The Alfa’s absolutely wonderful but it will most likely be moved on later in the year to make room for another car from my automotive bucket list.

I have a few ideas as to what might take its place and if one of them comes to fruition then it’ll be the biggest automotive purchase of my life so far.

And yes, sad as some may see it, cars are part of the soul equation for me.

Do Something

With the exception of PJ’s art goals, all of this is has been personal “me” stuff. 2005-2011 was all about Saab for me and 2012 was a transition away from that. It’s about time I did something to make a contribution to the community that I live in.

I’m not sure what that’ll look like, but there’s got to be some community organisation out there that could do with a grumpy old man and another pair of hands.

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That’s a reasonable list to aim for, isn’t it? Nothing too onerous but plenty to look forward to. I hope (and think) it’s all achievable.

What are you aiming for in 2013? It’s very fashionable to treat the idea of resolutions and goals as a bit of a joke at this time of year but secretly, I think we all have something in mind that we want to achieve.

Feel free to share yours here (or not).

Either way, I hope you had a fruitful 2012. Thanks for visiting here and reading my occasional stuff and I wish you every success in 2013. As always, I hope it’s much better than the year that’s gone before.